“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, ... like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the
person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be
this way ever again.”
I have found to this to be true. I lived in Africa for 2 years. I came back to America appreciating so much many of the things we have. Ice in my drinks, red meat, running water, (I still get a happy feeling every time I flush the toilet) time at Starbucks with friends. Greeting them with hugs, looking into their eyes as they talk and seeing the expressions on their faces rather than hearing a voice breaking up with static on a cell phone half way around the world. But I also came back to America discovering that over the 2 years I was gone, I saw the world a little differently then before I had left. I had experienced joys and sorrows that my friends had not known of. (As they had with things I knew not of) I found that different things were important to me... some of them good, some of them probably not so much. I had grown, I had changed. And so had the people here whom I loved (and still love so much) But the difference is, we didn't do it together.Our paths diverged. And for awhile, that caused me some difficulty. I couldn't just pretend that nothing has changed. Because everything had changed! It took me awhile to learn that even though our paths diverged, the important thing was that they came back together again. I was finally able to appreciate and wonder at the changes in myself and my old friends...to stop trying to resist the change and see it for the wonderful thing that it is. And, to thank God for it.
I've been home for 2 years, and now I'm off again. I'm going back into the Peace Corps. I will be serving in Azerbaijan's Youth Development Program from September 20 through December 2014.I wont be sure where in the country I will be living or what my "job" will be until sometime during the first 10 weeks of training. I am so excited to be working with youth. Here's a little about what Peace Corps says about the Youth Development Program: " The Youth Development project in Azerbaijan has enormous potential to grow and develop. More than a quarter (28%) of Azerbaijan's population is between the ages of 15 and 24 (the Azerbaijani government's official definition of youth) and 55% of the total population is under 29 years of age. Most of them are trying to discover their place in Azerbaijan's changing social, economic and cultural context"
Im so excited. And yes, sad to leaving the people behind whom I love so much. Because when I get back, we will all be so different. But I do look forward to seeing for myself and my friends all that we will become.
More later, as I get closer to leaving.
Peace!
